The present invention relates to a rack for supporting cans, bottles, or other containers in a refrigerated cabinet or chest. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a rack taking the form of a columnar array of trays detachably connected laterally and adapted to be supported in an angular mode to facilitate gravity feed of the containers, in turn, to a retrieval zone.
The use, generally, of racks in coolers as conveyances for the containers of the products being cooled is a technique well-established in the art. The racks themselves have taken various physical forms and have been fabricated of different types of materials. For the most part, the racks used have been of particular predetermined dimensions and have been unalterable to accommodate either different spatial dimensions, the site in which the rack is used, or to accommodate different sizes of containers to be cooled.
Others of the racks have interfered with the circulation of cooled fluid media and have, accordingly, been ineffective in optimizing heat transfer and resultant cooling. Others of prior art racks have been fixedly secured in the cooler itself and have thus rendered it difficult to effect cleaning to maintain the desired level of sanitation and cleanliness.
While extensive time and effort have been expended to provide cooling racks for refrigerated cabinets, no completely satisfactory structure has heretofore been made available. Accordingly, it is a principal aim of the present invention to obviate many of the shortcomings of prior art cooling racks and to provide a simple structure of high mechanical strength which permits, at the same time, the ready circulation of cooling fluid which will accommodate containers of various sizes, and which is, itself, adjustable in its overall length.